Odor Seal

ABSTRACT

The invention proposes an odor seal for use in or on the drainage channel of sanitary installations or the like, or on the outflow thereof, comprising a housing ( 101 ) provided with an inflow, and also comprising a helical inner wall ( 114 ) which is arranged on the housing, at a spacing apart therefrom, and forms an annular space ( 106 ) with the inner housing wall ( 113 ), and this annular space ( 106 ) is connected to an upper overflow ( 115 ), formed by way of the inner wall ( 114 ), into an outflow chamber ( 106 ) with an outwardly directed overflow connection ( 103 ), the housing ( 101 ) being an elongate conduit component which is closed at the ends on both sides and in which the helical inner wall ( 114 ) is arranged in the longitudinal direction, at a spacing apart, to form the annular space ( 105 ), which is connected to the inflow ( 102 ) and/or an inflow chamber ( 104 ).

The invention relates to an odor seal in accordance with the preamble ofclaim 1. Such odor seals are disposed in or ahead of an outflow linebehind sanitary installations, such as shower stalls, bathtubs, kitchensinks, bathroom sinks, or also as floor drains. Because of theircorresponding design, a level of water remains in such devices, whichseals off the connected installations with regard to gases that comefrom the sewer line.

An odor seal referred to as a siphon is known from FR 2 791 372 A1,which seal is to be disposed exclusively directly under thecorresponding sanitary installation, for example on the outflow of asink. It consists of a pot-like housing, at the upper open side of whichan attachment flange is provided, with which such an odor seal can bedirectly attached underneath the corresponding sanitary installation. Aspiral-shaped inner wall with wall spacing is disposed in this pot-likehousing; it separates an inflow chamber that is open towards the topfrom an outflow chamber formed in the interior of the inner wall, whichstands in connection with an outflow connector, which is to be connectedwith the outflow line of the sewer system. In this connection, thisinner wall forms a ring space having an upper overflow from the entrychamber to the outflow chamber. With this design structure, the resultis achieved that when water runs out of a sanitary installation, a waterlevel in the housing that serves as an odor seal is always maintained,up to the level of the overflow. As compared with U-shaped siphons, thisodor seal has the possibility of lesser structural heights at the sameoutflow flow cross-sections. Such an advantage is of particularsignificance if such an odor seal is to be accommodated in a floorstructure, for example under a shower stall, and only a slightstructural height is available.

However, there are only limited possibilities for reducing thestructural height of an odor seal formed in such a manner, because ofthe ring space required in a housing and in the entry chamber, in orderto guarantee sufficient through-flow cross-sections. Furthermore, in thecase of minimized corresponding cross-section ratios, there is the riskthat the ring space in such an odor seal, which forms the odor seal withits water level, will be emptied by suction in the case of a partialvacuum in the outflow line, because of the merely slight amount ofwater, so that an odor seal is no longer effective.

The task of the invention consists in proposing an odor seal of the typestated initially, which permits a lower structural height, taking theminimum diameter cross-sections into account, and which additionally isable to offer increased security with regard to the risk of beingemptied by suction as the result of a partial vacuum in the outflowline.

This task is accomplished with an odor seal having the characteristicsof claim 1. In contrast to the known prior art, such an odor sealaccording to the invention utilizes the possibility of the width andlength dimension that is generally available in the floor structure, sothat the height dimension can be restricted to a minimum dimension. Inplace of a pot-like housing, the odor seal according to the inventionuses an elongated channel piece, which can have an oval cross-section ora rectangular cross-section, for example.

Such an odor seal according to the invention can have both a face-sideconnector that can be installed, with a corresponding molded piece, inthe immediate vicinity of the sanitary facility or a floor drain.However, it can also be implemented directly as a gutter-like channelpiece according to claim 7 and the following claims, and can be mountedon the outflow line. Such an odor seal can therefore also be used as anelongated outflow gutter, e.g. as a floor drain, or also can be used ona sanitary object having a slit-like outflow opening.

Attachment flanges on which sealing materials can also be applied serveto accommodate a floor inflow grid or for attachment to a sanitaryobject. The attachment flange can be equipped with holes or otherattachment means.

To enlarge the residual water volume that serves as the odor seal in thedevice according to claim 5, and to reduce the suction effect in thecase of a partial vacuum, it is proposed, according to claim 4, to widenthe ring space from the deepest point towards the overflow, in order toprevent emptying by suction in the case of a partial vacuum. Thisenlargement also makes use of the width dimension, whereby thestructural height of such an odor seal is not changed.

A minimum water storage chamber of the ring space can be formed by meansof a barrier crosspiece.

The invention will be explained in greater detail in the following,using exemplary embodiments that are shown. The figures show:

FIG. 1: a view of the inflow-side face side of a channel-like odor seal,

FIG. 2: a top view of an odor seal having an approximately oval housing,in cross-section, in a section according to the line II-II FIG. 1,

FIG. 3: the face view of the outflow-side housing side,

FIG. 4: a section along the line I-I in FIG. 2,

FIG. 5: a top view of a gutter-like odor seal, and

FIG. 6: a perspective sectional representation according to the lineIII-III in FIG. 5, through the odor seal in FIG. 5.

FIGS. 1 to 4 show an odor seal that can be connected either with anoutflow line, for example as a floor drain, or directly with an angledpiece on a sanitary installation, such as a sink, bathtub, shower stall,floor inflow, or the like, whereby the structural height only has to beslightly greater than the diameter of the outflow line, so that suchodor seals are particularly suitable for installation in a floor inwhich only a slight structural height is available, or also underbathroom vanities, for example, in order to leave as much room aspossible for cabinets or the like. It consists of a housing 1 formed inthe manner of a channel piece, having an approximately ovalcross-section. The face wall 11 that ends the housing on the inflow sideis penetrated by the inflow connector 2, which is to be connected withthe sanitary installation or a floor inflow. The downstream-side facewall 12 has the outflow connector 3, laterally offset from the axis. Inthe interior, a spiral-shaped inner wall 14 is provided, at a distancefrom the inner housing wall, i.e. the channel wall 13, forming a ringspace 5. This spiral-shaped inner wall 14, which is open towards thetop, forms an overflow 15 to the inner chamber of the inner wall 14, andthereby to an outflow chamber 6, which is connected with the outflowconnector 3. The waste water that enters by way of the inflow connector2 two reaches the ring space 5 by way of the inflow chamber 4, and,after it reaches the overflow 15, gets into the outflow chamber 6, andfrom there, it is drained into the connecting outflow line by way of theoutflow connector 3. A water level that serves as an odor seal remainsin the ring space 5, after the water has flowed in; this level isdetermined by the height of the overflow 15. In order to guarantee asufficient residual water level in case of a possible partial vacuum inthe connecting outflow line, a continuous crosspiece 16 that delimitsthe ring space 5 is disposed in the longitudinal direction, at adistance from the spiral-shaped inner wall 14, having a height H that isgreater than the height h of the ring space at its deepest point.

FIGS. 5 and 6 show an odor seal in the manner of a gutter-like channelpiece 101 having the face walls 111 and 112. A spiral-shaped inner wall114 is disposed in this channel piece 101, which can be provided withadditional outer side walls and a stand-on floor surface, also in theinterior, at a distance from the wall, forming a ring space 105. Thisgutter-like channel piece can be used directly in the floor of asanitary installation, for example a shower at floor level, as a flooroutflow gutter, or under a sanitary part having a slit-shaped outflow.The outflowing water enters into the inflow chamber 104, which can bewidened in width, by way of the slit 102, and from there reaches theoutflow chamber 106 by way of the ring space 105 and the overflow 115.This channel piece 101 can be attached under a sanitary part withlateral attachment flanges 116 formed onto the top, by means ofcorresponding attachment means. In the case of use as a floor drain, theattachment flange 116 can serve as the contact surface for an inflowgrid and for embedding in thin-bed mortar, for which purpose theattachment flange can be equipped with perforations at regularintervals, so that the projecting shanks can also be anchored underfloor tiles, using the thin-bed method. The attachment flange alsoserves to accommodate sealing means.

In the case of this design, as well, the ring space 105 formed betweenchannel wall 113 and inner wall 114 can constantly widen from the lowestpoint to the overflow 115, in order to enlarge the water volume thatserves as the odor seal.

Reference Symbol List 1 housing channel piece 102 entry slit 11 facewall 103 outflow connector 12 face wall 104 inflow chamber 13 channelwall 105 ring space 14 inner wall 106 outflow chamber 15 overflow Hheight 16 crosspiece h height 2 inflow connector 3 outflow connector 4inflow chamber 5 ring space 6 outflow chamber 101 gutter-like channelpiece 111 face wall 112 face wall 113 channel wall 114 inner wall 115overflow 116 attachment flange

1. Odor seal for use in or on the outflow line of sanitary installationsor the like, or on their outflow, consisting of a housing equipped withan inflow, and a spiral-shaped inner wall disposed within it, at adistance from the wall, which forms a ring space with the inner housingwall, and this ring space empties into an outflow chamber within theinner wall, with an upper overflow formed by the inner wall, wherebythis outflow chamber stands in connection with an outflow connector thatleads to the outside, wherein the housing is an elongated channel piece(1, 101) that is closed on the end side on both sides, in which thespiral-shaped inner wall (14, 114) is disposed in the longitudinaldirection, at a wall distance, forming the ring space (5, 105) thatstands in connection with the inflow (2, 102) and an inflow chamber (4,104), respectively.
 2. Odor seal according to claim 1, comprisingpipe-like channel piece (1) that is continuously closed at itscircumference, having an inflow-side inflow chamber (4) that emptiesinto the ring space (5) between spiral-shaped inner wall (14) andchannel wall (13), whereby the spiral-shaped inner wall (14) is closedoff on the face side, on the inflow side, at least up to the height ofthe overflow (15).
 3. Odor seal according to claim 2, wherein thepipe-shaped channel piece (1) has an approximately oval or approximatelyrectangular cross-section, whereby the axes of the inflow connector (2)and of the outflow connector (3) are disposed with lateral offset. 4.Odor seal according to claim 2, wherein the ring space (5) widens fromthe deepest point towards the overflow (15).
 5. Odor seal according toclaim 2, wherein a continuous crosspiece (16) that delimits the ringspace (5), or the like, is disposed in the longitudinal direction,parallel at a distance from the spiral-shaped inner wall (14), having aheight (H) that is greater than the height (h) of the ring space at itsdeepest point.
 6. Odor seal according to claim 2, wherein thespiral-shaped bent inner wall (14) is formed onto the channel wall (13)on the inside, from the top.
 7. Odor seal according to claim 1,comprising a gutter-like channel piece (101) having one or more upperentry openings (102), which empty into the ring space (105) that isclosed on the face side, on both sides, and the outflow chamber (106),which is also closed on the face side, stands in connection with anoutflow connector (103).
 8. Odor seal according to claim 7, wherein theentry opening is a continuous slit (102).
 9. Odor seal according toclaim 7, wherein lateral attachment flanges (116) are disposed in theupper region of the channel piece (101).
 10. Odor seal according toclaim 9, wherein the attachment flanges (116) are provided withperforations at regular intervals.
 11. Odor seal according to claim 1,wherein the attachment flanges (116) have a gradient in the direction ofthe entry openings (102).